Doctors praise 'world’s first full face transplant'

Surgeons claim they have performed the world’s first full face transplant, in
a breakthrough operation.

By Kate Devlin and Fiona Govan

7:27PM BST 22 Apr 2010

The patient, a young man whose name has not been made public, had been unable to swallow, speak or breathe properly since an accident five years ago.

Now, thanks to the pioneering surgery he is said to be “recovering well” at Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Hospital.

He has received an entire new face, including skin, muscle tissue, lips, nose, jaw, teeth and cheek bones.

The new face was donated from an unnamed male who died in a road accident.

Surgeons said the 24-hour operation, thought to be the most complex of its kind ever performed in the world, would enable the patient to live a “practically normal life” and that the scars on his new face would soon fade.

Joan Père Barret, Head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Service, announced the success of the operation, which took place on March 20, and said the patient had seen his new face and was happy with results.

"The patient has scars on his forehead and his neck but they will become invisible in the future.

"He has seen himself when he told us he wanted to and psychologists said he was ready.

"It was a week after the operation and he reacted well, saying he was satisfied with the result," said Dr Barret.

“Within a few weeks he should begin to talk and eat as well as smiling and laughing.”

British doctors working in the field hailed the success as a breakthrough.

Prof Peter Butler, head of the UK's Facial Transplantation Research Team, which is working on performing similar operations in Britain, said: "This operation once again shows how facial transplantation can help a particular group of the most severely facially injured people, for whom reconstructive surgery has not worked and for whom the quality of life is indescribably poor.

"These are people who live a terrible twilight life, mostly shut away and hiding from public gaze."

At least 10 partial face transplants have now been carried out across the world.

The first was performed in France in November 2005 on Isabelle Dinoire, whose original face was mauled by her dog.

In 2008 doctors performed a face transplant on Connie Culp, who had been left with the middle part of her face missing after being shot by her husband four years previously.

Hers was the most complete of such operations to have been performed at the time.

It took 20 hours to complete and included include bone, muscle, skin, as well as blood vessel and nerve transplants.

All patients have to take medication for the rest of their lives to suppress their immune system and prevent the transplanted skin being rejected.